In my library: Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald will spend New Year’s Eve doing what comes naturally: singing. This time, the five-time Tony winner and “Live from Lincoln Center” host will perform with the New York Philharmonic at its gala tribute to Marvin Hamlisch, the late composer of “A Chorus Line,” “The Way We Were” and much more. “You’d expect that someone who’d achieved so much would be jaded, but that wasn’t it at all,” she says. “He was still so excited about music — any kind of music!” You might say the same for McDonald, who started as a classical voice major at Juilliard and found her calling on Broadway and off. Catch her Monday night at 8 on PBS, along with Josh Groban, Megan Hilty and other Hamlisch fans. Here’s what’s on McDonald’s shelves.

AP

Gone With the Wind

by Margaret Mitchell

I’d seen the movie a bunch of times, but the book was as big as a Bible! One day, I missed the train to Virginia to visit my grandparents and had to take a bus [from New York). I grabbed the “Gone With the Wind,” and the 11-hour trip went too quickly! It was one of the first times I realized the power of imagination.

Porgy

by DuBose Heyward

When I was offered the opportunity to play Bess [on Broadway], I started from scratch. I’d seen the opera so many times, but I wondered, where did Bess come from? The book gave me her backstory. Once I realized she was truly an addict, her character broke open for me. It’s a difficult read, though, because of the dialect. You literally have to read this out loud.

Beloved

by Toni Morrison

My mom had all of Toni Morrison’s books, but I first read “Beloved” at Juilliard, 3,000 miles from my family. Morrison was moved by the story of a woman who fled slavery and, instead of having her children taken from her, kills them. I’d never before openly wept while reading a book, but I get emotional even thinking about it now.

Sanford Meisner on Acting

by Meisner and Dennis Longwell

I’d never really studied acting, but after I got “Carousel,” a dear friend who was in the show said, “I’m telling you this because I love you: You need to look at what you’re doing and start understanding who the character is.” I went to this book and started to understand: It’s not about playing something, but actually doing!

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Fiscal-cliff deal could be ready for a vote tomorrow

WASHINGTON — Start holding your breath — a fiscal-cliff deal could be ready for a vote by tomorrow.

President Obama and congressional leaders emerged yesterday from last-ditch negotiations at the White House with a grim new determination to seal a deal before the New Year’s Day deadline, when big tax hikes and deep federal spending cuts otherwise will whack America.

“We’ve got to get this done,” Obama declared at a press conference following the 65-minute Oval Office meeting.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sounded an unusual bipartisan tone after the meeting, agreeing to work on a deal in time for a vote tomorrow.

AFP/Getty Images

HEAT’S ON: President Obama speaks at the White House yesterday following his meeting with congressional leaders about a fiscal-cliff deal.

At a minimum, Obama wants a vote on a scaled-down package that keeps Bush-era tax cuts for family incomes up to $250,000, extends unemployment benefits and postpones spending cuts.

The president said he was “modestly optimistic” that one of these deals would get done in time. But he plans to keep pressure on Congress with an appearance tomorrow morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The Reid-McConnell deal could raise the tax-hike threshold to $400,000 to attract more Republican support, as well as extend the current inheritance-tax rate and dozens of business tax breaks that are also set to expire Tuesday.

“We’ll be working hard to see if we can get this done in the next 24 hours,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Reid told the chamber that whatever they come up with will be “imperfect” because they are dealing with big numbers and complicated issues.

“Some people aren’t going to like it. Some people will like it less, but that’s where we are,” he said.

After the meeting, Obama used the White House bully pulpit to put public pressure on Republican leaders to let a proposal — even one that isn’t bipartisan — go to a vote.

Senate rules empower any member to hamstring legislation and House Republican leaders control what reaches the floor.

“If we don’t see an agreement between the two leaders in the Senate, I expect a bill to go on the floor . . . that makes sure taxes on middle-class families don’t go up,” Obama warned.

He said “ordinary folks” don’t understand why everything is a logjam in DC and lawmakers can’t just get the job done.

“The American people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy,” he said.

Obama, Reid and McConnell were joined at the White House by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

During the talks, Boehner told Obama the House would act on whatever legislation the Senate passes, either approving it or amending it, said a Boehner spokesman

Boehner has been sidelined from the negotiations since House Republicans abandoned his “Plan B” that would have limited the tax increases to millionaires.

Obama also issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees — a move that pumped up the salaries of Biden and members of Congress, The Weekly Standard reported yesterday.

Biden will snag an extra $6,379 each year, bringing his salary to $231,900, while US Senate and House members will make an additional $900.

smiller@nypost.com

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Raj will pony up $1.5M

Former hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam has agreed to pay $1.45 million to resolve a civil Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit related to his alleged insider trading based on tips from former Goldman Sachs Group director Rajat Gupta, according to court documents.

Rajaratnam, founder of Galleon Group, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison last year after he was convicted of conspiracy and securities fraud in a broad insider-trading scheme, including alleged tips from Gupta. Rajaratnam, 55 years old, is serving his sentence at a federal prison in Massachusetts and is appealing his conviction.

EPA

Raj Rajaratnam: Digging deep.

As part of a consent agreement signed by Rajaratnam earlier this month and approved on Dec. 24, he agreed to disgorge more than $1.29 million, representing his profits or losses avoided as a result of his alleged trading on Gupta’s tips, and to pay prejudgment interest of $147,738.

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Storm dumps snow, rain on region, flooding roadways and leaving messy travel conditions

EPA

Motorists make their way through snow fall and traffic along the Merritt Parkway in New Canaan, Connecticut Wednesday.

Whipping wind and soaking rain pounded the region overnight, flooding area roadways and leaving a messy morning commute for travelers.

The northeaster dumped a snow-rain mix on New York and New Jersey, leaving slick and sloppy driving conditions.

That storm also caused flight delays at LaGuardia, Liberty International and JFK airports, while causing MTA officials to shut down 3 Train service between 96th and 148th streets.

According to AccuWeather.com, snowfall accumulations reached eight inches in Syracuse and about 11 inches in Buffalo.

Flooding is expected during this morning's high tide cycle in low-lying coastal areas in Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Long Island.

Some areas in northern New Jersey are already experiencing minor flooding, including Red Bank and Neptune City in Monmouth County.

While the rain should taper by 9 a.m., the wind should remain, with the National Weather Service calling for wing gusts of up to 38 miles per hour in the city.

Tomorrow should be sunny and clear.

And then? Possibly more snow Saturday. Meteorologists are keeping an eye on this weekend's weather potential.

"It's too early to see if there will be any accumulation," AccuWeather.com forecaster Tom Kines said.

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Good Sam helps reunite girl, 7, with stolen dog

A 7-year-old girl got the best present ever yesterday — she was reunited with her best friend, who’d been dognapped by a coldhearted thief the day before.

“I couldn’t sleep last night without Marley smiling,” Mia Bendrat said of her little pal, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel stolen from in front of a Washington Heights grocery.

Her relieved mom, Angie Estrada, said, “It’s a Christmas miracle. Oh, yes!”

The hero of the holiday story is good Samaritan Tena Cohen, who was headed to the Greenmarket in Union Square at about 1:30 p.m. Monday when she heard a man yelling, “Dog for sale!”

Robert Miller

Mia Bendrat with Marley

Robert Miller

SAVIOR: Tena Cohen (above) paid $220 out of her own pocket to reunite Mia Bendrat with Marley, who had been stolen. “I’m not going to let Marley go now, no matter what!” Mia beamed after recovering the dog.

“It looked nervous and sad, and was kind of an older dog,” Cohen said. “I figured it was stolen.’’

She offered to buy the pooch.

“I said I had $100. He said the guy who owns it wants more” and pointed to a man, Cohen recalled.

The supposed “owner’’ was “very stoned, on drugs,” said Cohen, who teaches Spanish at Brooklyn Tech HS. “He said he paid $3,200 for the dog, and had it for years.”

Cohen then walked into a nearby Staples and made three debit-card purchases totaling $220.

Then she returned them for cash and went back to negotiate.

“I said, ‘Look, this is all the money I have,’ ” Cohen said. “He gave me the dog. I gave him the money.”

She took Marley to a vet and also called cops. Both men were gone by the time police arrived. But last night they picked up 29-year-old Brad Bacon, of Washington Heights, and charged him with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

The vet checked out the dog for free and held him overnight. Cohen called a group called Cavalier Rescue USA.

Its president, Carolyn Stigler, remembered the story about Marley in yesterday’s Post.

Stigler contacted the vet, who called the Post reporter. She arranged for the dog to be taken to Mia’s family, to see if it was Marley. It was.

“This was my daughter’s Christmas wish,” said Estrada.

Until then, the family had been devastated.

“It was so sad,” Estrada added. “She sat in Marley’s nook and refused to dress up the tree.”

The happy ending came just in time.

“I can’t believe a grinch would steal our Marley,” Estrada said. “But the grinch didn’t win.’’

Mia chimed in, “I’m not going to let Marley go now, no matter what!”

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Two pet pooches pilfered

Two adorable dogs were stolen from their masters in separate incidents — with one still missing, leaving his 7-year-old owner heartbroken for Christmas.

Marley (pictured), little Mia Bendrat’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel, was stolen from in front of a Washington Heights grocery store yesterday morning.

“He’s the Grinch that stole Christmas,” Mia said of the coldhearted thief who swiped Marley, which was tied to a pole in front of La Rosa Fine Foods on Broadway.

“When my mom told me the dog was lost, I started to cry. He’s my only dog,” she said of the pet she got for Christmas two years ago from her grandmother.

Mia, and her mother, Angie Estrade, put up 150 fliers around their neighborhood in hopes of finding Marley.

“Who would do this on Christmas Eve?” Estrada fumed.

In an another puppy pilfering, thieves in a Williamsburg, Brooklyn, home invasion stole a 6-month-old Yorkshire terrier-Maltese, stuffed her in a bag and tossed it down a trash chute, sources said.

The dog was later rescued after the super heard her barking.

“Getting the dog back was a Christmas gift,’’ said her relieved owner, who asked that his name not be printed.

The 22-year-old man said two masked men, armed with pistols and a hammer, knocked on his door and forced their way into his home at around 3:10 a.m. Dec. 15.

Jennett Leandre, 23, was arrested and charged with assault, robbery, burglary and menacing.

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Afghan policewoman kills US adviser: police

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan police official says an Afghan policewoman has killed an American adviser at the Kabul police headquarters.

Kabul's Deputy Police Chief Mohammad Daoud Amin says an investigation is under way to determine whether the killing Monday was intentional or accidental.

It was not known whether the victim was a military or civilian adviser. The NATO military command says it's looking into reports of the shooting but had no independent information.

At least 53 international troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers or police this year, and a number of other assaults are still under investigations. NATO forces, due to mostly withdraw from the country by 2014, have speeded up efforts to train and advise Afghan military and police units before the pullout.

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True meanings of Christmas

There are certain Christmas traditions that seem like they’ve been with us forever, from putting aside December 25 to celebrate the birth of the sun, to our collective worship of the great god Woden.

On second though, maybe things have changed more than we like to admit.

“The History of Christmas,” a new e-book by Wyatt North, recounts the history of many of the Christmas traditions we take for granted, showing how so many of these customs are as amorphous as they are joyous.

Here are just some of the treasured beliefs North helps shed a bit of Christmas light upon.

AP

The Rockefeller Center tree — slightly taller than Martin Luthor’s original Christmas tree.

CELEBRATING ON DECEMBER 25

North points out that early Christians in Europe “were part of an agrarian, pagan culture,” and that their early traditions included a post-harvest winter celebration called Saturnalia which “paid homage to the gods who ruled all aspects of sowing, planting and harvest.”

Consisting of “feasts, festivities and festivals” that included “conspicuous indulgence” and “raucous behavior,” Saturnalia took place in mid- to-late December to “honor the god of the sun, Saturn.”

Several other pagan celebrations — including one praising the birth of “the unconquerable sun” and another that worshipped “Mithra, the god of fertility, who was the son of the sun” — took place on the birth date of their gods, December 25.

Early Christian converts, writes North, were torn between the massive (and enjoyable) pagan feasts they had come to know and the life of relative moral austerity to which they were committing. As such, Christian celebrations often carried pagan elements over from their prior beliefs.

Understandably, this caused dissension between strictly religious Christians and those with a more lax and nostalgic approach, especially as some Christians continued worshipping the sun. North tells of how, in the 5th century, “Pope Leo lamented in a sermon that upon entering the basilica to celebrate Christ’s nativity, worshippers turned on the stairs to face the rising sun and bowed.”

When an 8th century English bishop was “horrified” by the “pagan debauchery” he saw over Christmastime in Rome, he wrote to Pope Zacharias, who in turn unleashed a barrage of cruelty and violence in order to curb the practice, establishing a tradition of Saturnalia horror that lasted for centuries.

But within this, the holiday also evolved, with 1103 seeing the introduction of the Old English phrase “Cristes-Maesse,” meaning the Mass of Christ. That phrase eventually morphed into the word we know today.

While the celebration itself remained controversial for centuries, so too was the date of this worship, as North reminds us that “the exact date of Christ’s birth is a controversial topic.” December 25 had been revered by early pagans, but Christians long settled on January 6 as their day of “epiphany, meaning God’s manifestation to humanity.”

Have a comment on this PostOpinion column? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

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Mike is kickin’ class over $250M aid loss

The teachers union’s refusal to come to the negotiating table on a new rating system for its members will end up costing the city $250 million in state education aid, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.

Hizzoner and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott slammed the president of the United Federation of Teachers for ditching talks on how to meaningfully evaluate the performance of teachers — just weeks shy of a strict Jan. 17 deadline for an agreement.

“I thought we were well on the way of having productive discussions, but for some reason Mr. [Michael] Mulgrew has instructed his people to walk away from the table,” Walcott said during the mayor’s weekly radio appearance. “It’s really tough to negotiate when the UFT walks away from the table.”

Bloomberg said the city is recalculating its midyear budget with the assumption that the anticipated $250 million boost is now a bust.

“It takes weeks to figure out what we’re going to have to cut if we don’t get the money,” he said. “We can still keep negotiating, but we’re going to start assuming in our budget preparations . . . that we will not have the money.”

The rules of the deadline say the city needs to not only reach a deal before that date in order to get the funds, but it also needs to have its plan approved by the state Education Department — and implemented.

That’s why Walcott had imposed an even earlier deadline for striking a deal, but his hopeful deadline expired last night.

Mulgrew said he’s open to continuing talks with the city, but he’s insisting that officials agree to discuss the implementation of the new rating system before the two sides hammer out the details of the evaluations themselves.

He said it’s because the DOE has already botched preparations for introducing the new ratings — including a lack of training for key personnel.

“[If] the implementation and training is all messed up, then the evaluation [system] will fail — and that’s too important for the schools system,” said Mulgrew.

Gov. Cuomo insisted earlier this week that he would not extend the approaching deadline.

The city is one of just 27 districts — out of 692 in the state — that have yet to submit a plan to the state.

The rating system will include a component that judges teachers based on how well their students do on state tests — something the union had been opposing for years.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com

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North Korea says it has detained a US citizen

PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea said Friday that it has detained an American citizen who has confessed to unspecified crimes.

State media said in a short dispatch that someone named Bae Jun Ho entered North Korea on Nov. 3 as a tourist but was detained because of crimes.

The North said the crimes were "proven through evidence" but didn't elaborate.

Pyongyang has detained and eventually released several Americans in recent years. Some have been Christians accused of religious proselytizing.

Two journalists were also detained after crossing into the North from China while on a reporting trip but were later released.

South Korean activists have told local media in Seoul that Bae is a Korean American and was detained after entering North Korea to guide tourists. Bae operates a tourism company that specializes in North Korea, the reports said.

The North Korean dispatch said officials from the Swiss Embassy met Bae on Friday, but there were no other details about the meeting. The United States doesn't have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang so American citizens are given aid by the Swiss.

Bae is undergoing "legal treatment" according to North Korea's criminal law, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.

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Hold on, Mr. Preshident!

Veteran TV newsman Sam Donaldson was arrested on DUI charges in Delaware, police said yesterday.

Donaldson (pictured), a former White House reporter for ABC, was stopped on Dec. 1 by cops in Lewes, Del., after his car was spotted swerving onto the shoulder of the road.

Lewes is a resort town on the Chesapeake Bay, across the Delaware River from Cape May, NJ.

Donaldson allegedly failed a field-sobriety test and was arrested and taken to the local police station.

The 78-year-old newsman was later released and given an unspecified date to return for a court appearance.

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O, stop this apocalypse . . . now!

Michael Goodwin

This is why we have a president. The question is whether the president we have will rise to the challenge.

Barack Obama gave an eloquent, heartfelt address at Sunday’s memorial service in Newtown, Conn. He said privately that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School made Friday “the worst day” of his tenure. The pain showed on his face.

But sharing the suffering of the 26 families who lost loved ones and calming a traumatized nation won’t be enough. As Mayor Bloomberg put it bluntly, “Being the consoler in chief is part of his job. His main job is being commander in chief, and I endorsed him, and I endorsed him because he said he believes in rational use of guns in this country, and I expect him to do exactly that.”

Leaving aside his inexact reference to commander in chief, Bloomberg is right to put the ball in the president’s court. It belongs there precisely because there are no easy and obvious answers to where America goes from here.

For sure, there are some straightforward steps that will mark a good start. A ban on automatic and semi-automatic rifles, along with outsized ammunition clips that have no rational civilian use, likely will find wide support now.

The goal is clear: Take the “mass” out of “mass murder,” as one observer put it.

Yet it is striking that parts of that ban were in effect for 10 years until 2004, and Democrats did nothing to revive it when they had full control of Washington in the first two years of Obama’s term. The inaction offers an insight not only into the tricky politics of gun control, which divides both parties, but how Obama picked his priorities.

He did not believe he was elected to refight the prosaic battles of past presidents. He made it clear he wanted to “transform” America, not merely reform it. Splitting his party over gun control would have cost political capital he wanted to save for other fights, such as ObamaCare and re-election.

So, as Bloomberg not so delicately put it, “The president spoke out visibly on gun violence after the mass shooting in Tucson two years ago. Yet since those shootings happened, more than 24,100 Americans have been murdered with guns.

“Had we done something then, a vast number of those would be alive today and their families wouldn’t have been torn asunder.”

There is truth in that claim, but it also unfairly mixes apples and oranges. The slaughter of 20 children is horrific beyond description, but the vast majority of murders happens alone. They are carried out primarily with handguns that didn’t fall under a federal ban then and won’t now.

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Over the Rainbow: Landmark day for 30 Rock nightspot

Michael Alexander

SWINGIN' ROOM: The city hopes bestowing landmark status on Rockefeller Plaza's Rainbow Room will draw a new tenant to the iconic site.

The Rainbow Room has found its pot of gold.

The famed former supper club — where Marlene Dietrich sipped cocktails to big-band music and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor gossiped with Broadway insiders — is officially a landmark.

The landmark status was approved by a unanimous vote of the City Council Land Use Committee yesterday, setting the stage for formal approval by the full council today.

Caitlin Thorne

Landmark status is rare for the interior of a building. Usually, the city awards landmark status only to entire structures

When the Art Deco restaurant opened in 1934, it was the first eatery in the city to be located in a high-rise setting — the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

“It’s a great historic space with unbelievable views and right now it’s looking for a tenant, somebody to take over,” said Councilman Mark Weprin (D-Queens), who is on the Land Use Committee.

“It’s been an historic restaurant for many years now. One of the nicest views you’ll ever see anywhere in the world, and it’s been the home to many famous evenings throughout the history of New York.”

Committee Chairman Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) called it “an iconic room, a special place, a tourist attraction.”

The upscale restaurant and nightclub was shuttered in 2009 after a nasty landlord-tenant dispute between Tishman Speyer, which owns Rockefeller Center, and the Cipriani family, which was running the Rainbow Room at the time.

The Ciprianis filed for landmark status in 2008, and then announced they would close a portion of the restaurant.

Tishman Speyer said the Ciprianis owed back rent.

The two sides eventually agreed that the Ciprianis would give up the restaurant in 2009, and the city is now seeking a new investor for the spot.

The restaurant, which lured the city’s rich and famous, underwent a massive $25 million restoration and expansion in 1985.

sally.goldenberg@nypost.com

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Newtown plans victims' burials as school's future debated

REUTERS

A woman and a child pray over candles outside Saint Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church a day after a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut Saturday.

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A grieving Connecticut town braced itself Monday to bury the first two of the 20 small victims of an elementary school gunman and debated when classes could resume — and where, given the carnage in the building and the children's associations with it.

The people of Newtown weren't yet ready to address the question just three days after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and a day after President Barack Obama pledged to seek change in memory of the children and six adults ruthlessly slain by a gunman packing a high-powered rifle.

"We're just now getting ready to talk to our son about who was killed," said Robert Licata, the father of a student who escaped harm during the shooting. "He's not even there yet."

Newtown officials couldn't say whether Sandy Hook Elementary, where authorities said all the victims were shot at least twice, would ever reopen. Monday classes were canceled, and the district was considering eventually sending surviving Sandy Hook students to a former school building in a neighboring town.

TERRIFIED STUDENTS RAN INTO DANGER

OBAMA: "THESE TRAGEDIES MUST END"

MOTHER DEVOTED HER LIFE TO HIM - THEN HE ENDED IT

The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, was carrying an arsenal of hundreds of rounds of especially deadly ammunition, authorities said Sunday — enough to kill just about every student in the school if given enough time, raising the chilling possibility that the bloodbath could have been even worse.

The shooter decided to kill himself when he heard police closing in about 10 minutes into Friday's attack, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said on ABC's "This Week."

At the interfaith service in Newtown on Sunday evening, Obama said he would use "whatever power this office holds" to engage with law enforcement, mental health professionals, parents and educators in an effort to prevent more tragedies like Newtown.

"What choice do we have?" Obama said on a stark stage that held only a small table covered with a black cloth, candles and the presidential podium. "Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?"

The president first met privately with families of the victims and with the emergency personnel who responded to the shooting. Police and firefighters got hugs and standing ovations when they entered for the public vigil, as did Obama.

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Japan voting on new parliament

TOKYO — Voting has begun in Japanese parliamentary elections expected to put the once-dominant conservatives back in power after a three-year break amid widespread voter dismay with the Democrats.

Major newspapers predict the vote will give the Liberal Democratic Party, led by the ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a majority in the 480-seat lower house.

Many have soured on the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which won a landslide victory in 2009 but could not deliver on a string of campaign pledges and passed legislation to double the sales tax.

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Two dead after shooting at Las Vegas hotel: police

LAS VEGAS — Police say a man and woman are dead after a murder-suicide shooting at a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

Las Vegas Police Lt. Ray Steiber says a man shot a woman at about 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Excalibur hotel-casino. The man then shot and killed himself.

Steiber says the woman was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

He says the circumstances of the shooting are under investigation.

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Nurse in royal hoax was found hanging from scarf, left three notes behind: coroner

LONDON — A nurse who passed a hoax call into the hospital room of the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge apparently killed herself three days later, with a coroner's officer saying Tuesday she was found hanging by the neck and a detective saying she left three notes.

Coroner's officer Lynda Martindill said nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found hanging by a scarf from a wardrobe in her room by a colleague and a member of the security staff at London's King Edward VII Hospital last week.

Police detective chief inspector James Harman said Saldanha also had injuries to her wrists. He told the coroner's inquest that three notes were found in the room. Police have said there were no suspicious circumstances, meaning nobody else was involved in Saldanha's death.

AP

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha

As well as examining the notes, he said police were interviewing her friends, family and colleagues and looking at emails and phone calls to establish what led to her death. The case is being treated as an apparent suicide.

Saldanha answered the phone last week when two Australian disc jockeys called to seek information about the former Kate Middleton, who was being treated for severe morning sickness. The DJs impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, and Saldanha was duped into transferring them to a nurse caring for the duchess.

Australia's media watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, said on Thursday it was launching an official investigation into whether the radio station, 2DayFM, breached its broadcasting license conditions and the industry code of practice

Coroner Fiona Wilcox opened and adjourned the inquest until March 26.

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Pics bare chilling anatomy of hit in Midtown

The NYPD yesterday released a dramatic series of surveillance photos that show a killer about to gun down his unsuspecting target on a busy Midtown street.

Brandon Lincoln Woodard, 31, had just checked out of the swank 6 Columbus hotel near Columbus Circle when he was followed by the assassin on West 58th Street and killed near Seventh Avenue Monday afternoon.

The assassin escaped in a getaway car. Cops early this morning were questioning the couple who rented the car, The Post has learned, although investigators don't believe they were driving it — but they are looking at the possibility they may have loaned it to someone who then used it in the crime.

Meanwhile, the law student appeared nervous as he had what turned out to be his final breakfast, at the La Parisienne diner.

“He ate breakfast at the counter but he was always looking over his shoulder,” said cashier Dimitrios Drimalitis, 61. “He looked scared and afraid of something.”

1. A silver Lincoln MKX sedan pulls up along West 58th Street and parks in an open spot near Seventh Avenue. Wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, the hit man (circled) exits through the passenger door, looks around and paces back and forth next to the sedan. He's 20 minutes early and his victim, Brandon Woodward, 31, is still checking out of the swanky 6 Columbus hotel.

2. The killer pulls his sweat-shirt hood over his head. At about 1:15 p.m., Woodward walks east on the north side of West 58th Street and crosses Broadway. He checks his smartphone, as if looking for directions, and passes right next to his assassin, who is waiting for an opportunity to strike.

3. Woodward turns around and walks west. He glances over his shoulder at the hooded man but seems not to recognize the killer and keeps going. The assassin approaches from behind, pulls a gun and blasts Woodward at close range with a single 9mm shot to the head. The 31-year-old father crumples to the ground. The shooter enters the Lincoln sedan and is whisked away by his getaway driver.

Woodard returned to his hotel and then left at 1:15 p.m., possibly lured away by the killer and drawn into a trap, said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

“It’s certainly a distinct possibility,” Kelly said. “We are looking into that.”

Cops said Woodard was killed with a weapon that ballistics determined was also used in a 2009 shooting in which two men riddled a St. Albans, Queens, house with bullets. No one was hit.

“They never found out who did it’’ or why, said Eshe Warner, 24, whose late grandmother, Iris Warner, owned the home at the time.

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Man executed on busy Midtown street in planned ‘hit’

David McGlynn

Police investigate the scene where a man was executed on West 58th St.

A man in a business suit was executed in broad daylight on a Midtown street packed with holiday shoppers, tourists and workers returning from lunch yesterday, in what authorities called a carefully coordinated “assassination.”

The victim, 31-year-old Los Angeles resident Brandon Lincoln Woodard, had just left a hotel and was walking on West 58th Street shortly before 2 p.m. when his silent assassin came out of nowhere, authorities and witnesses said.

Woodard, the father of a 4-year-old girl, was texting before the shooting, sources said.

Getty Images

GORY DETAIL: With a barrier to shield the bloody scene from passers-by, police look over the scene where Brandon Lincoln Woodard (right) was gunned down yesterday.

The killer walked up behind him, whipped out a silver semiautomatic handgun and fired once into the back of his head.

SEE A MAP OF HOW THE MURDER WENT DOWN

Woodard fell on his back with blood pouring from his face outside St. Thomas Choir School, a Christian boys boarding school at 202 W. 58th St., about a block from Carnegie Hall and Columbus Circle.

The shooter disappeared as if he were “a ghost,’’ one witness said.

He coolly hopped into a waiting light-colored Lincoln sedan, with a getaway driver behind the wheel.

The car headed east but initially was caught in traffic and stopped at a red light at the intersection.

But both coldblooded riders didn’t panic and stayed inside the car — just feet from Woodard’s body — before turning down Seventh Avenue and disappearing.

“There was no rush,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said of Woodard’s killer. “He just walked up, shot him and walked away.”

A police source said the shooting was “definitely a hit, an assassination.”

Investigators are probing a possible connection to drug dealing.

Woodard was charged with cocaine possession in California last June and has prior arrests for robbery, petty theft and leaving the scene of an accident.

Police are also exploring to what extent Woodard — who once claimed he was roughed up by bodyguards working for R&B superstar Usher — had ties to the music industry, law-enforcement sources said.

Woodard, who was wearing a black suit, was dead on arrival at Roosevelt Hospital.

The shooter was described as black, wearing a dark coat with a brown hoodie and khaki pants.

David Mirambeau, 29, a UPS worker delivering packages, said the sound of the gunshot reverberated down the street.

“I just heard a gunshot. It was loud. There was blood all over his face,” he said of Woodard. “He was gasping for air. He was still alive.”

Mirambeau said several cellphones and an iPod lay near the man’s body.

The grisly exit wound on Woodard’s face led witnesses to report he had been shot in the front, not the back, of the head.

Witnesses ran to a firehouse at 215 W. 58th St. to say a man had been shot.

“I ran over to the Fire Department, banged on the door, and they came out immediately,” said Benny Harris, 44.

“Within minutes, they were cutting the guy’s clothes off,” he said.

“We didn’t see the perp,” Harris added. “We all ran over there, and nobody was around. He must’ve been a ghost.”

Police sources said investigators had found surveillance footage of the gangland-style murder but were unsure whether to release it because it doesn’t show the killer’s face — and it’s extremely graphic.

A single shell casing was recovered, police said.

Relatives poured into the Woodard family home in LA to pay condolences, but declined to comment.

“Brandon was a wonderful man — kind heart, smart, good person,” said family friend Chrissy Roussel, who added that Woodard was attending Whittier Law School in California and was visiting friends in New York.

Woodward’s father, J. Lincoln Woodard, 72, said, “It was a shock.”

The victim worked at United International Mortgage, an LA firm founded by his mother, Sandra McBeth-Reynolds.

Additional reporting by Chuck Bennett, Matthew McNulty and Jamie Schram in New York and Genevieve Wong in Los Angeles

kirstan.conley@nypost.com

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Long after storm, LIRR restores normal service

The Long Island Rail Road is running on a normal rush hour schedule for the first time since Superstorm Sandy forced it to trim service.

The busy commuter railroad suffered a big hit when floodwaters rushed into two critical rail tunnels beneath the East River, damaging the signal system used by LIRR and Amtrak trains.

Repairs are still ongoing, but Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday that work crews had restored enough of the system for the LIRR to resume a regular schedule on Monday. Trains have been running for weeks, but service had been limited.

That meant bigger crowds on some trains and platforms.

Work will continue on the signal system in a second tunnel over the next few weeks.

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